


queen honey

by jasminetea



Category: Elementary (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Bottom Sherlock Holmes, Canon Character of Color, Developing Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Female Character of Color, Gen, POV Character of Color, POV Joan Watson (Elementary), Sherlock Holmes & Joan Watson (Elementary) Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 07:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15407592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminetea/pseuds/jasminetea
Summary: "Pilot with me," Sherlock says, leaning forward.“Ms. Watson,” Ranger Gregson adds,  “Just humor him, and he’ll give it up.”“Indulging him is not going to help,” Joan says firmly.After their first drift, where Joan scowls mightily and Sherlock beams like it’s Christmas morning, Gregson remarks, “Well, that jaeger is equipped with a katana you know.”Scenes from an AU.





	queen honey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [autoluminescence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/autoluminescence/gifts).



> Written a long time ago, inspired by this photoset: http://autoluminescence.tumblr.com/post/56303641722/elementary-pacific-rim-au-i-would-ask-you-to

When Joan is six, her mother wants her to be a Daisy and join Girl Scouts.  Unfortunately for her mother, she has an argument with Joan about something.  What exactly, Joan no longer remembers.  However, Joan is angry enough to not join Girl Scouts even though that’s what she wanted.

Instead, she joins the JJ after school program.

* * *

The US promoted the Junior Jaeger program as a patriotic opportunity for children, a way to promote children’s exercise and women’s self defense.

By the time Joan lets go of her anger at her mom, she’s been in the program long enough to enjoy it.  When people keep asking Joan why she was in the All-American program, Joan said she wanted to learn self defense.  She didn’t tell people that JJ was different from her water-logged neighborhood where the boys had their boys-only playhouses. 

At JJ, the boys and girls played together and the girls could not only win but play _with_ them. 

* * *

JJ trains them to fight.  The end goal of the program after all, is to have a pool of drift candidates.  Joan wants to learn Jeet Kune Do (Oren's a big Bruce Lee fan and has all his movies and a poster in his room), but they also made her learn to use a weapon.  A bit belligerent about the way everyone kept calling her a ninja (no matter how often she told them she was _Chinese_ ) for being so quiet, she asks to learn how to use a katana.

Like all things Joan applies herself at, she puts in the hard work and becomes _good._

* * *

“You should apply to become a pilot,” they said. 

Joan says no.  That’s not why she joined the JJ program, and she never wanted to be a pilot.  She doesn’t want the fame, the spotlight, the constant pressure to perform.  She wants to save lives.

She applies to a pre-med program (JJ even helped her with that too), and when she finally starts college, the end point of the JJ program, she thinks this is the end of it.

And it is, until she meets Sherlock Holmes.

* * *

Sherlock Holmes’ public battle with addiction is all over the newspapers once again after he returns from his long exile in _America_ of all places.  Joan doesn’t give it too much thought until she gets a vid message from Ranger Gregson requesting her presence at the Hawai'i outpost.

* * *

“You want me to _what_?”

“Pilot with me,” Sherlock says leaning forward.  “America’s militarization of even the jaeger program is quite reprehensible but their standardized testing was useful in this case.”

“I’m here as your sober companion not your partner.”

He grabs her hand, a rare intrusion of the boundaries of personal space he ascribes to.  He pulls his thumbs across her calluses. “Tell me why you still have calluses from your sword.”

She frowns.  “That’s not the same thing as being a pilot.”

“You’re perfect Watson, don’t you see how well we’d work together?”

His hands tighten on her wrist, and then she reacts without thinking.  Breaking his hold, she maneuvers him so his face is pressed into the floor, her knee in his back, her hands pinning his wrists.

“Perfect, Watson, I said perfect!” he cries into the floor.

* * *

“Ms. Watson,” Ranger Gregson says.  “Just humor him, and he’ll give it up.”

“Indulging him is not going to help,” Joan says firmly.

After their first drift, where Joan scowls mightily and Sherlock beams like it’s Christmas morning, Gregson remarks, “Well, that jaeger is equipped with a katana you know.”

* * *

Sitting on the scaffolds, they look at their jaeger. The space across her heart, where her name should be, is now blank.

“When are you going to name her again?” Joan asks.

“When I find her worthy of someone’s name again.”

“Do you even want to rename her?”

“I won't have you pilot a jaeger with another woman's name on it.” And then, quietly, "I’m not that man anymore."

Irene Adler’s absence lies heavy between them and Joan says no more.

* * *

She finds him on the scaffolding looking at their jaeger, his feet dangling from the edge.  He’s sucking on a honey stick and extends his arm out.  Joan looks down at the honey stick he offers her and sits beside him.

“I’m going to name her _Euglassia Watsonia_.  If it’s okay with you, of course."  He looks at her from the side of his eye.

Joan takes a sip of her honey.  "I like it,” she replies.

His face splits into a smile, and they stay there until their honey sticks are empty and gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Some notes on this AU:  
> · Holmes might be addicted to drifting  
> · Holmes and Watson wind up cohabitating to increase their drift compatibility. Because time is short or for whatever reason.  
> · Sherlock's idea of teambonding is spaghetti in cups and picking out Joan's clothes, and his general "Joan Joan Joan hey look at me!" attitude  
> · Joan is still flawless, except she has a katana. (What can I say, I loved Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii)  
> · People assume that because Joan is the rookie pilot, Sherlock's the one in charge. But that's not at all how their power dynamic works. Sherlock might have more experience, but he cedes his power to Joan.   
> · The power rests with Joan because even in AUs, Sherlock and Watson have the best kinky platonic relationship ever  
> · The decal for Euglassia Watsonia is a honey bee, but the team jokingly adds a crown in honor of Joan. This leads to them calling the jaeger Queen Honey since they think Euglassia Watsonia doesn't have the same ring. Sherlock is annoyed, but also pleased other people see Joan like he does.


End file.
